SF0184 RIP Clem Burke, Dave Allen, David Thomas, Rick Buckler

SF0184 RIP Clem Burke, Dave Allen, David Thomas, Rick Buckler

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It’s sad when musicians you knew when you first started listening to “better” music pass away. Here’s a tribute episode to four recently departed alternative colossi from the golden era of the late 70s.

Clem Burke was Blondie‘s drummer throughout their own golden era. He subsequently went on to play with many other bands including The Stranglers and even a Blondie tribute act. But it’s his work with the original version of the band which will be best remembered. If you haven’t seen it make sure to head over to YouTube and watch him upstage Debbie Harry, an almost impossible task, on the song Dreaming. They say no one notices a drummer. You simply can’t take your eyes off Clem.

Dave Allen meanwhile was an altogether more retiring musician. As the bass player in the Gang of Four it was easy to overlook his contribution compared with Andy Gill’s guitar heroics and Jon King’s social observations. However, listen out for Dave’s interlocking with Hugo Burnham on drums to form the engine room of the band. It was Dave who was responsible for introducing a more funk-like element into the band’s sound. He went on to form the band Shriekback, a hard to categorise band, but an intriguing one nonetheless.

David Thomas of Pere Ubu was an absolute one-off. I can’t really do any better then quote an anonymous journalist over on Apple who put it like this.

“Depending on how you looked at it, the singer was either a philosopher teasing out the repetitive absurdity of language, or just a moron barking his inner monologue to whoever happened to be passing by (as evidenced by the haunting “I did this/And I went there/And I think about you all the time” on “Codex”). It was hard to tell if he was a Homer Simpson-type written by Samuel Beckett, or a Raymond Chandler detective investigating his own shadow.”

And finally to Rick Buckler of The Jam. I understand why Paul Weller wanted to wrap the band up and move on to the next stage of his career in 1982. Personally, I don’t think he fully appreciated what he had with his first band. They were the most successful British act on the charts in the late 70s and early 80s without sacrificing their credentials with the more alternative crowd. Rick certainly played his role in the power trio. By all accounts he was very popular with everyone, always had time for the fans and quietly got on with his life after that brilliant spurt of creativity of which he was an integral part.

RIP, Clem, Dave, David and Rick